Thank you Chester! It's amazing that once these guitars have a proper fret dress, the action can be amazing and they play better than any strat ever made. No wonder Fender got their (Bridget Jones style) knickers in a bunch. The only exception for me are one or two early 80's Schecters I have that are just sublime and easily match the Tokais for quality - and the have humbuckers with coil tap - the most versatile and giggable machines .

I was in a band in early 80s where the guitarist had a schecter, great playing guitar! My 81 ES100 is easily as good as any gibson 335 I've laid my hands on and better than most - early 80s tokai's are the business.

I don't see how there can be any difference with yours - I think it is identical.

We know that in very late 1965, Fender changed the headstock shape and introduced the CBS script (not spaghetti) logo. So, if yours is a copy of an early 1965, then this makes sense, as yours has the smaller headstock shape. It is still odd that Tokai would mark yours up as a 6-digit 1965-76 model though. Maybe they were short of L prefix neck plates that day?

Yes, Candy Apple is one of the nicest colours around for a Strat. I've actually got several Tokais strats this colour. I also have one that came with a painted headstock. I stupidly "fenderised" this, threw out the original bridge and replaced it with a Kahler locking tremolo - it was my main workhorse for some time. I'll post some pics of this soon.

When Fender brought Candy Apple out in 1963, it quickly became the best selling colour behind sunburst and black. For all you nerds out there, it was also the first colour Fender used that wasn't a GM (dupont) automotive paint! I'm a Tokai novice, so I'm just showing off about my Fender knowledge

Hey Suki,
Yes, I always considered this to be an early 60s pre CBS replica - kind of a "surf" genre look and colour. What date is yours?

CAR works well with the white scratch plate and rosewood neck combo. Not so well with the maple board in my view...not biased really

For disclosure mine has had a lot of the hardware replaced due to wear, so not as original Tokai anymore as some.
New bridge, tuners, SD pickups, frets etc. the wooden bits were always the quality parts on this guitar for me!

Sorry for OT but notice you are an old Selmer user Chester!
Though without its original amp, this old Truevoice and 18 watt Traynor Guitar Mate Reverb has been my main noise box for the last 20 years. Great combo, still with original Goodmans 12 's in it.

Sorry for OT but notice you are an old Selmer user Chester!
Though without its original amp, this old Truevoice and 18 watt Traynor Guitar Mate Reverb has been my main noise box for the last 20 years. Great combo, still with original Goodmans 12 's in it.

Hi there - yeah I love my 1963 triumph reverb, about 15 w, pure class A with a lush tremelo and nice spring reverb. Fabulous overdrive and 3 elliptical speakers, sounds amazing and unique. I picked it up for a song in the early 80s, didn't look like it had ever been used as it still had the factory label tied to the handle! Been using it ever since, you can see it on the left here